The subject invention relates to winemaking and related processes. Its primarily application is to the process of making and bottling of sparkling wines, in which pressures contained within enclosed vessels are of vital importance and concern in such process. In this latter sense, the subject invention has wider application to processes beyond the winemaking industry, such as the process of making carbonated beverages or other drinks contained under pressure.
In winemaking and other related processes wherein the wine is carbonated, this process is consummated within the confines of an enclosed cask or other suitable container. In smaller winemaking operations, this carbonated process is usually completed in a wine bottle enclosed with a retaining cap or a cork, and the resultant gases, such as carbon dioxide, are contained within the bottle under varying pressure conditions. In general, this gas production and the resultant internal pressures generated within the bottle container are a natural concomitant of the carbonation process. In the event this internal pressure becomes too high, the potential of bottle damage or explosion increases commensurately to such increased bottle pressure. The safety problems that result are easily foreseen.
As a consequence, it is important in the process of making and using sparkling wines that some means be devised to gauge internal pressures at given intervals for safety and other purposes. No such device has been known which provides a method of sealing the bottle and providing in conjunction therewith a pressure measuring apparatus which yields a continuous pressure reading of internal bottle pressures. The purposes of this invention are directed accordingly, and the following objects of the subject invention are set forth as a result.